Certificate in Song Therapy Skills Course Structure and Curriculum

The Certificate in Song Therapy Skills course offers three specific study areas split between ten modules

Each module is designed to be studied over three to four weeks two hours per week

The course can be completed in ten months however students are welcome to take up to thirty six months to finish the course depending upon other life commitments

Part One : Building Human Relationships

Part one explores building good human relationships as a practical transferable skill, the importance of the way we think about ourselves and others in our lives; the impact that this has upon the quality of our working relationships including its effect upon our music group participants.

Module One : Introduction : First steps
introductions to attachment / awareness / emotional intelligence / philosophy and humanism / person centred thinking / professional practice / the difference between music therapy and song therapy

Module Two : Human skills : Awareness of the outside
physics of sound / senses / child and developmental psychology / attachment theory group dynamics / survival theory / record keeping / observation

Module Three : Human skills : Awareness of the inside
insight / the human brain / emotions / judgement / clear thinking / listening skills / balance / the tao / mindfulness / meditation / group dynamics / critical thinking

Module Four : Human skills : Acceptance
rogerian thinking / positive regard / empathy / congruence / holism / reductionism existentialism / universal anxiety / the courage to be

Part Two : Song Therapy

Part two explores our practical music making and we identify the specific therapeutic outcomes that we can responsibly explore in recreational music making settings.

Module Five : Music as a friend
innate musicality / patterns / imprinting / conditioning / home / security / musical scales / play / adventure / self directed growth

Module Six : Music as a medicine
physics of sound / entrainment / resonance / harmonics / binaural beats / isochronic tones / bio rhythms / neurochemistry / neuroplasticity

Module Seven : Music as a language and song writing
communicative musicality / the pentatonic scale / music improvisation in recreation and education / creative self expression / song writing methods

Part Three : Health and Professional Practice

Part three offers an introduction to the health challenges some are facing in their lives and explores the professional responsibilities that we have to our music group participants

Module Eight : Music and health
an introduction to the health challenges of life / dementia / respiration and COPD / dsm / medication / therapy / low mood as an evolutionary survival strategy / philosophical perspectives / why do we face the challenges of life so differently / determinism / humanism / theism / existentialism

Module Nine : Professional practice
ethical frameworks / human rights / code of conduct / data protection / safeguarding / consent and capacity / a philosophical framework for the exploration of professional practice / phenomenology / psychology / self and other / the validation of emotions / needs and responsibilities to self and to other / balance

Module Ten : Conclusion
song therapy / music as the therapist / a person centred physiological music intervention / self worth and self compassion / human spirit / the celebration of self directed positive change and growth / good endings / the courage to be / beauty / love / bliss / purpose / meaning